Orthopedic braces are useful as preventative aids to prevent injuries to joints caused by motions or orientations of the joint that are outside the biomechanical limits of the joint. Orthopedic braces are also useful to promote proper healing of a joint following an injury to, or surgery on, the joint. Braces are also useful as a method to stabilize joints with arthritis, thereby alleviating pain.
Patients usually see a physical therapist to strengthen their muscle(s) after suffering an injury, undergoing surgery, or when afflicted with arthritis, conditions which can result in muscle atrophy. The patient may receive electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) at the start of the physical therapy to loosen their muscles before the exercises and stretching begins. EMS is also used by the therapist (as prescribed by the health care provider) to strengthen muscles which have atrophied. However, the delivery of EMS for muscle strengthening is sub-optimal, as it can only be performed when the patient is with the therapist.
If the patient has been fitted with a brace, the physical therapist may manually adjust the brace, under the guidelines provided by the physician, in order to allow increased motion of the injured joint, or to tighten a brace that has become loose secondary to muscle atrophy, or both. These manual adjustments often lead to errors, as the adjustments are based on the personal judgments of the physical therapist (or medical professional), e.g., the muscles may not be of sufficient strength to support the joint.
The knee is acknowledged as one of the weakest joints in the body, and serves as the articulating joint between the thigh and calf muscle groups. The knee is held together primarily by small but powerful ligaments. Knee instability arising out of cartilage damage, ligament strain and other causes is relatively commonplace since the knee joint is subjected to significant loads during the course of almost any kind of physical activity requiring the use of the legs. Significantly, tearing of the ligaments in the knee, particularly the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), also occur frequently, and in some cases requires surgical intervention for proper healing to occur.
Knee braces in particular are widely used to treat a variety of knee infirmities. Such braces may be configured to impart forces or leverage on the limbs surrounding the knee joint in order to relieve compressive forces within a portion of the knee joint, or to reduce the load on that portion of the knee. Moreover, in the event that knee ligaments are weak and infirm or surgically repaired, a knee brace may stabilize, protect, support, or rehabilitate the knee.
Typical knee braces and the prescribing of knee braces have several significant limitations and drawbacks. First, after an injury occurs and a medical professional such as a doctor recommends the patient wear a knee brace, the medical professional may not see the patient again for several weeks to months after the initial visit. The medical professional may not receive any feedback about range of motion of the joint or strength of the muscles surrounding the joint.
Further, a doctor (e.g., surgeon) treating a patient often sees the patient several times after the treatment of the injury (e.g., surgery). The doctor typically determines the next step in the patient's treatment based on how the patient looks and feels during a visit. The doctor, however, usually does not have objective data associated with the patient's injury to help in the doctor's assessment of the patient and the next step in the patient's treatment. Specifically, the doctor may not be able to obtain accurate range of joint motion or muscle strength. As a result, the doctor often determines the patient's next course of treatment based on his or her subjective analysis of the patient at the time of the patient's visit; this analysis may be sub-optimal.
Thus, there remains a need for a brace that is better suited to both stabilize and strengthen an injured joint and, additionally, to provide better objective data about the joint's function in order to facilitate a doctor's treatment of the joint.